Alexia

It ends up taking me nearly an entire half a day with me falling asleep for most of it to completely regenerate my soul, my soul’s regeneration speed having increased along with my levels. Something I’m rather pleased with.

I jump down from the tree and quickly begin making my way through the midsection of the forest into the mountainous area.

The amount of time I saw left on the timer the last I checked was about two days left, so…

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Time Left Until the Tutorial’s End

1 days, 20 hours, 20 minutes, 5 seconds

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About what I expected.

I think that should be about enough time for me to reach the level cap of Tier 1 and get back to Astrid. Probably.

And since I’m here… I should probably go hunt the level 100 monster of this island. Because that might be a nuisance when the Tutorial ends, and it’s freed from its lair.

So with that thought in mind, I begin rushing through the mountains, only to end up not finding anywhere near as many thunder hawks this time.

I frown.

Strange.

I glance at Luna when she begins squeaking out of nowhere while flashing with a purple light that moves out through the area in the form of a pulse.

‘Something wrong?’ I ask through our bond, only to remember that Bonded Pets get new skills every time their bonded partner – me – reaches a multiple of ten in levels.

So I check her skills real quick, finding a new skill called Quantum Echolocation. Which is basically a skill similar but more powerful and also more limited than my Quantum Attunement skill. One that lets her search a wide area by sending out quantum pulses in search of living things and sources of magical energy.

But unlike Quantum Attunement that is passive and always active, not requiring any of my soul to use, this skill requires soul for her to use, even if the range of it is quite a bit more than Quantum Attunement. It’s also more accurate.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After a few seconds of the pulsing light, it stops, and Luna turns to me and lets out an adorable little squeak that has me patting her and rubbing my cheek against her. Which has her letting out a happy squeak before I refocus my attention on the task at hand.

Luna points her wing to the North – not gonna question how I know it’s the north – and I immediately head in that direction. Soon enough I find a thunder hawk hiding in a tree that quickly flaps its wings to get into the air with lightning coating its body. But I don’t let it, instead teleporting up into the air multiple times to catch up to it before cutting straight through the thing with my polearm.

Then I fall back to the ground, the two halves of the hawk’s corpse thudding against the grass seconds later.

[Level 91 Thunder Hawk Defeated. User’s earned EXP for some of the kills have been decreased a small amount for killing creatures below their level.]

It feels so weird to see such a high level monster not giving me any points.

Actually, now that I think about it, what’s my position on the leaderboard right now anyways?

[#1 Alexia Knight – 3,672 points]

[#2 Lucas Nightshade – 1954 points]

[#3 Leif Eriksson – 1839 points]

[#4 Aurora Frost – 1819 points]

[#5 Isabella d'Aragon – 1779 points]

[#6 Alexander Frost – 1699 points]

[#7 Leonidas Silver – 1684 points]

[#8 Noah Kowalski – 1598 points]

[#9 Nathan Briar – 1498 points]

[#10 Damien Black – 1395 points]

I stare for several seconds before eventually muttering out loud, “What?”

How did… oh.

Despite remembering it earlier, I didn’t bother to check my points for the points I stole from those nobles I killed.

Kind of makes me wonder what the other members of the top ten are thinking after seeing my points shoot up like that.

I hope they don’t think I’m some mass murderer or something.

Also, those nobles didn’t have many points if a fifth of eighteen peoples’ total points only amounted to about a thousand five or a thousand six hundred points. Then again, it still almost doubled my total points, so I won’t complain.

And as for the other people in the top ten thinking I went on a rampage, at least some of them are probably going to be doing the same after leaving their dungeons just for the points. So I doubt they’d care about me killing for points anyways, even though I didn’t kill for points.

What I’m more worried about are other people looking at the leaderboards who aren’t in the top ten, or aren’t former ascendants and might get the wrong idea.

But… oh, whatever. I guess it doesn’t matter what they think.

Being feared might actually come in handy sometimes.

Luna suddenly pokes my cheek with her wing, bringing my attention to her before she points off somewhere with her other wing, likely pointing me in the direction of another thunder hawk.

‘Thank you,’ I tell her with a smile as I quickly begin running in the direction she pointed.

Hmm, I should start relying on her a bit more. I kind of forgot about our ability to share soul in our fight earlier, and I need to make sure I use every possible thing that I can to survive.

With that thought in mind, I pat Luna on the head as I run to her apparent pleasure considering her little squeak.

‘Ya know, I’m really glad I you’re my bonded pet, Luna,’ I tell her through my bond, making the little vampire bat squeak again while rubbing her head up against my hand.

So adorable.

My thoughts halt when I hear a very loud screeching caw noise echoing from deeper into the mountains, which I now on closer look realize are actually four with a smaller mountain whose peak is partially flattened in the center of the three. Something that looks kind of odd until I focus on the lightning that’s now starting to crash around it, making me understand what it is.

The level 100’s lair.